devorah major: California Poets Part 4, Four Poems

devorah major

December 29th, 2021

California Poets: Part IV

devorah major

Four Poems

usa fire alarm the house is burning we can smell its smoke sparks singe the curtains our eyes water as growing fires sizzle at our front and back doors on the top floors some of the residents are in a thick fog sleep others are trapped in the darkened basement straight-backed and frightened i sit in the living room i am not alone the house is burning the arsonists say they will rebuild the frame with our bones glue together ashes for the walls they have no need to replace the windows i have a bucket of water at my feet where should I throw it

as storms gather wind tears through shuddering trees a shifting sigh as leaves wither and fall shrieking squalls spume fury across ocean crests murmuring a moaning song with a piercing chill icy fevers inhale the waves’ surge swallow unmoored boats warning of seasons to come seasons only some will survive

downpressors Woe to the downpressors: They'll eat the bread of sorrow! Bob Marley you walked on our bones for centuries turned them to sand poured into sandboxes for your children to build sandcastles and when the sand became translucent filled with the sunlight burning your eyes you found more to sacrifice sent vultures to strip away our skins and built ladders formed from our ribs, limbs and skulls on which you climbed to get a better view of the lands you planned to conquer and now we rise joined by some of your children and grandchildren who have eaten of shame and refuse to travel on the rails you laid with our bones and each of you who blocks our path tries to press us back will be blinded by our brilliance blinded blinded blinded by our brilliance

a mother’s howl night sounds dirges of sirens and gun shots screeching tires and assaulting voices become bricks around your heart become an ever-tightening noose around your neck as the bridge of faith rocks and creaks beneath your feet hampered by age and poor construction what if it was you heart torn and bleeding by the call the knock at the door still hearing your son’s voice breaking into your restless dreams “mama, I love you” just as he exploded into death’s domain you who carries the grief of the mother who lost one and then another child you waking up cold sweat night after night when gunfire explodes blasts around your home you with the coroner and seeing your child cold but not yet stiff lying on a metal table your tears bathing his face because at that moment it wouldn’t matter if it was a cop obeying supremacist training or a neighbor consumed by confusion and rage all that matters is that flutter who quickened in your womb that baby who suckled your breast that child who climbed into your lap to pull your ears and give you sloppy kisses that youth who brought wild street flowers for love that young man who hugged you every day as if it was his last, “I love you mama” was dead and then consider if you would hear anything or only wail a howl that echoes mothers around the world who have felt that acid sear their hearts a mother’s howl a mother’s howl

Interview

July 14th, 2026

California Poets Interview Series:

devorah major, Poet, Writer, Performer, Editor

interviewed by David Garyan

DG: Let’s begin with your tenure as San Francisco’s third poet laureate and the first African American to hold the position. What are things you did to bring poetry into community and how has the literary landscape changed since then?

DM: In terms of my tenure as poet laureate, I had a project I titled, “War and Peace on Our Streets” that encouraged people to write a poem considering or evoking the theme in some way and submit to me as a (self-identified) child, teen, adult, poet, SF resident.  The San Francisco Public Library developed a website where these poems were published every month. Additionally, one poem with a brief article about the poet was published each month in the library’s newsletter and the SF Chronicle, a newspaper that then had a book section magazine as a part of their Sunday paper, published one of the poems.   Finally, City Lights Books’ publishing arm offered me the opportunity to publish an anthology of the poems.  another call went out for poems and The Other Side of the Postcard poetry anthology was created.

In terms of the literary landscape, the Bay Area, at best, is a series of landscapes. The Bay Area was a dynamic place for Black writers before I became Poet Laurete…  Al Young, Ishmael Reed, Ed Bullins, Marvin X, Pat Parker, Ntozake Shange when “for colored girls,” was being performed at Minnie’s Can-Do Club on Fillmore Street and later Haight.  And I only referenced Black poets since you asked the question of me as the first African American to hold the post.  But haven’t all SF poet laureates been “firsts?” Ferlinghetti the first SF Poet Laureate, Janice Mirikitani the first Japanese American, Jack Hirschman the first Jewish poet, Diane DiPrima, the first Italian American woman poet and so on.  I do think, especially for poets of the generation just under me, readings and collaborations are far more diverse in terms of people and cultures of color and thus some energizing approaches to the poems and the performances. We show up to each other.

DG: Have you had opportunities to collaborate with the subsequent poet laureates of San Francisco and what are some interesting initiatives you’ve seen from them?

DM: For the most part we are friends who break bread together, talk and share ideas.  I think that the initiative that I was most engaged with as participant and as audience was Jack’s International Poetry Festivals. They were incredible.  I wish the city of San Francisco had seen their value. Poets from all over the globe reading in their own languages with translation as needed.  Kim Shuck’s ongoing commitment to SF and poetry has manifested not only in some wonderful anthologies, one of which I was honored to be a part of, her own website of poets and poems and monthly open readings at the SFPL, which I have also been a part of, extending past her formal years as laureate.

DG: Throughout your career you have worked across genres, from fiction to performance, to recording. I’m curious about how performance influences your style on the page and also how place, in addition to this, shapes your creative approach. Given that you’ve toured widely—both nationally and internationally—I wanted to ask if there are perhaps differences in the way you might read a piece in Italy, where English isn’t widely spoken, as opposed to England, where it is, or different parts of the US, where not only the language is similar but the culture more so?

DM: When I write a poem, I listen to myself, first inside as the words flow or are pulled out and then, especially if I get stuck, I read the poem and as I am doing that adjust line breaks and consider how to show the pause I am voicing with the poem onto the page.  So, page to voice to page and circling around as I revise and polish.  But how I read poems even with the given line breaks and white space depends on what I am bringing up front in the poem that day and if public the place, the news, and yes, the audience.

I have performed in countries where there is a translator on stage and I read a few stanzas and then they provide the translation.  In that case maintaining a good rhythm can be a challenge in keeping to the truth of the emotion in my reading at that moment.  In Italy my them. Rafaella Marzano, of Casa delle Poesia in Italy is my translator there and she creates slides that the audience reads while I perform in English. She changes the slides in my rhythm so performing there is always exciting.  Also, many Italians speak English, no doubt more who go to readings featuring English language poets.  I learned a bit of Italian too.  As for culture I feel far more at home in Italy or Venezuela than in England. 

DG: In 2019, your first international collection, a braccia aperte (with open arms), was released by Multimedia Edizione in Italy. How much input did you have in the translation process and was there the opportunity to do some readings throughout Italian cities?

DM: Multimedia Edizione is the publishing arm of Casa delle Poesia an organization that celebrated 30 years of bringing poets to Italy from around the world and publishing bilingual books from some of us.  But yes, I read in cities and villages from South to North. I think the furthest south was Pasteum, the furthest north Desenzano, and the largest city was Salerno.  I read in bookstores, museums, libraries, courtyards, and literary festivals.  Very exciting!

DG: Teaching has been a very important part of your distinguished career, and you’ve done that in different parts of the US. To what extent have the different environments influenced your writing and what do you enjoy most about being in front of a class?

DM: Travelling nationally and internationally allows me to see more, learn more, understand more and be exposed to different culture rhythms and mores and all of that impacts my writing. Environments affect my writing. What comes to me sitting near river won't be the same things that come to me at 2:00 in the morning when I hear gunshots outside of my window.

Teaching changes mostly in terms of the population When I'm looking age group of 4th and 5th graders in the museum there is a different care that I would take than the care I take with teenagers in a distressed city school or people in the halfway house trying to find a way to be sane within insane times, or elders seeking new ways to reflect on or share moments of their life experience. and in that way, I do write for certain populations and bring certain poems to certain populations. So, in the museum I found myself writing about the art myself so that I could demonstrate different ways to enter the painting, embody the sculpture or imagine oneself using the artifact.

hammam

after The Bath by Jean-Léon Gérome, ca. 1880–1885

where are the baskets

filled with a bath’s necessities-

sandalwood soap to cleanse and heal

a scraper to scrub off dead skin

oils to smooth the limbs

combs to dress the hair

perfumes to add scent

kohl to decorate the eyes

where are the pools, steam rising

from the shimmering waters of one

while another’s crystal liquid rests

placid and cold, with buckets nearby

filled and then emptied, again, again

to cleanse, to cool, to rinse, to soothe

where are the other women

some washing

some lounging

perhaps singing, laughing

certainly, telling stories

and revealing dreams

while body and spirit

are purified and renewed

why does the nubian woman

head covered as if she was outside

seem wantonly immodest

displaying her breasts and thighs

suggesting other gifts

that would be stolen

if not freely given

why does her ward

perch like a captured bird

atop a wooden cage

right foot unnaturally

cupped around left ankle

the thin foot pressing its toes

into cold smooth tiles

as if caught in a memory

of a time when she danced

instead of limply conceding

to the bath which was no bath

but instead an imagined lust

On the other hand, a high school student asked me after a few sessions of poetry, Yeah but what is this poetry thang anyway?” I needed to go home and write a poem so I could fully answer the question.

DG: I’d like to elaborate on the previous question from the perspective of being abroad. You’ve written poems while traveling. Could you talk about some memorable experiences where that has happened and if new environments, in general, make it easier to start a piece, as opposed to being in your usual setting?

DM: It’s a particular pleasure to write when one is in a space without the everyday concerns of maintaining a household.  That’s why writing retreats are so popular.  Most of the writing I do while traveling is about the trip itself or small things that arrive out of serendipity.

DG: In addition to all the exciting things you’ve done, interviewing other artists is also a part of your repertoire. What do you enjoy most about the process and if you had the opportunity to interview any writer no longer with us, who would that be and why?

DM:  Maybe Frances Ellen Harper because she was an African American poet and slavery abolitionist writing poetry of her times and yet some of her work still has resonance today.

DG: You’ve made a conscious decision to forego capital letters—both when writing your name and also in your poetry. Different writers have different reasons for doing this. When did you decide that lowercase letters were the best way to present your work and what was the motive behind it?

DM: I was certainly influenced to write my poems in all lowercase from Sonia Sanchez, among others.  It seemed important to have each word read for its importance in the poem without the gravitas given words which are capitalized.  When I began to do this and I saw my name with uppercase letters it seemed to emphasize my name more than I wanted.  Of course, I want acknowledgement that my work is my work, but my name need not be the first thing one’s eye is drawn to.

DG: For over twenty years, you’ve been involved in the performance poetry group Daughters of Yam. Could you describe how this collaboration originated, what type of work you do, and what’s in store for the future?

DM: Opal and I had been to each other’s reading and had much respect for each other’s work.  We were writing about similar things and decided that we should read together.  Then we began to script our poems for two voices and occasionally co-write poems.  We have two full length poetry and jazz recordings, Fierce Love and The Tongue is a Drum, one book, Travelling Women, and a chapbook Verdinia Amor, Amore Verdinia. We have performed Outdoors at the Lincoln Center, in Southern Italy and, naturally, around California.  Opal and I have not performed together for years since her home bas3e is now in Jamacia but we are doing a show with Destiny Muhammad at BAM House in Oakland July 30, 2026.

DG: What are you reading or working on these days?

DM: I am working on multiple projects. Currently they are a chapbook, which make become one section of my next full-length collection on an Arkansas born, Richmond, California quilter named Effie Lee Howard/Rosie Lee Tompkins.  I am also working on a chapbook, which seems to be growing into a larger collection of poems, called death writes.  I am completing a collection of short stories, mostly science fiction, named Knots and shopping my speculative fiction novel, Human Capital.

Author Bio:

Born and raised in California, devorah major served as San Francisco’s Third Poet Laureate (2002-2006). In 2019 her sixth book of poetry with open arms was released in a bilingual edition in Italy. A Willow Press Editor’s Choice her seventh book of poetry Califia’s Daughter was published by Willow Press in July 2020. In June 2015 major premiered her poetry play Classic Black: Voices of 19th Century African-Americans in San Francisco at the San Francisco International Arts Festival. She is on two CDs as a part of Daughters of Yam. devorah major performs her work nationally and internationally with and without musicians. She has been a participant in international poetry festivals in Italy, Belgium, Bosnia, Jamaica, and Venezuela, and also performed her poetry across the United States and in France, the Bahamas and Germany.